2S4Y Sketch - Laura's Sketch 44

There is something rather exciting about having fresh stamps that have never seen ink :0) When my Sewing Box Hugs arrived from WaltzingMouse, I knew that the "Wee House" would be the most challenging image in the set for me to create with.

However, when I saw this sketch by Laura, I thought the little house's time had come! The sketch could be interpreted very literally, with a perfect spot for the cottage to take centre stage.

I had a lot of fun putting the image together. I used patterned papers from Basic Grey's "Urban Prairie" paper line for the cottage walls and the rolling hill, glazed the little windows with Glossy Accents and then lightly applied Star Dust Stickles over the glaze for a little shimmer. The roof was watermarked with a zig-zag pattern and mounted on dimensional foam. The door was watermarked with twill, the chimney with bitty squares and the sky with polka dots. I couldn't resist a dinky little rhinestone for the door handle :0)

The card base was stamped with one of my new all time favourite stamps - the knitting from "Faux Fun". I was initially dismayed to see that the sentiment bled slightly into the background ink - but realised that it actually looks embroidered with the odd little stray fibre escaping from the embroidery thread! Perfect serendipitous moment:0)!

Materials: Stamps - All WaltzingMouse; Cardstock, Button, Twine, Aqua and Black Ink - Papertrey Ink; Patterned Papers - Basic Grey; Walnut Stain and Antique Linen Distress Inks, Stickles, Glossy Accents - Ranger; Flower - Prima; 3D foam - 3M; Dies - Spellbinders

I had a LOT of fun with this challenge, and really appreciated the chance to participate - thank you Kazan and Laura!

Best wishes to anyone who pops by :0) Have a fantabulous weekend!

ETA: I KNOW it is bad manners to brag shamelessly - but I just don't win things often enough to take it lying down :0) I was soooo excited and utterly STUNNED to be mentioned in the 2S4Y Fab 5 for this card! Thank you so much - that REALLY made my day!!!

A Little Knitting Anyone?

When Claire brought out this stamp set I knew I was in trouble! Gorgeous, textured, knitted sweaters have always been a favourite of mine :0)

Now it's time to spread that love!

I think this one will be heading to one of my favourite people (HUGS) - who lives in England! (This is a sneak preview LB!)

Here is a detail shot of the gorgeous 'stitching' around the hearts and star - and that knitted background which is sooooooo yummy!!

Materials: Stamps - All WaltzingMouse; Cardstock, Button, Twine, Ink - Papertrey; Punch - Fiskars; Brads - Making Memories; Distress Ink - Ranger

Thanks for stopping in :0) I really enjoy the opportunity to share this creative adventure! I also want to thank everyone who has been kind enough to leave me a comment over the past couple of days - I'm so blessed - THANK YOU!

P.S. Although I bought the stamp predominantly for the knitting - I saw this over at Anya's today ..... and think it's time to CASE! :0)

Well I Never Win Anything......

I've said that quite a few times in my life - and now I can't anymore :0)

Claire Brennan had a competition on the WaltzingMouse Blog a while ago. Quite the competition! Guess what her new stampset was all about (NO clues!) and she'd send the first person to guess correctly a brand spanking new set......

Somehow or another I guessed correctly! (It just may have had something to do with all those baby cards I was working on at the time :0)

Claire is starting to reveal glimpses of what it is  - and you can read more here! Adorable, huggable, CUTE, CUTE, CUTE!!!

Can't wait to see it  ALL Claire I'm so excited! THANK YOU!!

Melissa Phillips "Creative Mint" Challenge....

O.K. I'll admit it! I'm playing this challenge JUST because I wanted an excuse to be able to post this picture on my blog :0)!! Melissa Phillips challenged us on this post to come up with a project made using THIS PHOTO (drumroll please) as our inspiration:

Isn't it beautiful!??! ............sigh. This picture was taken from the Creative Mint Blog and you can see what inspired this photo in this post here......and the amazing news is that you can post this beauty on your blog too - if you link back to where it came from.....sigh some more......

Now where was I.

Oh yes - inspired :0)!!

I found the photo almost ethereal, so kept all of my colours quite muted. Wanting to try and create some of the softness of the 'fur', I tore my paper edges. I tried to add some of  the feeling of the tone-on-tone embroidery by dry embossing, and layered and heat embossed vellum over the lilac paper, which softened the colour still more. By zig-zagging the strips on the ends, the Plum Pudding was also softened - and I felt the stitching tied in with the embroidered shoes.......

This may have been the first time I used both rhinestones and pearls on a card together - it looks very soft, shimmery and yummy in real life.....the strip of Scor-Tape and Prisma glitter along the bottom adds just a subtle shimmer. The bottom edge of the card is punched with a Fiskars punch  with  a strip of lilac paper on the inside of the card to show this edge off, when the card is closed........

Materials: Cardstock and Swirl Stamp - Papertrey Ink; Sentiment - WaltzingMouse; Embossing Folder - Provo Craft; Flowers - Prima; Silver Thread - Janlynn; Pearls and Rhinestones - Kaiser; Vellum - Studio K; Versamark Ink

I layered two Prima flowers and then a button laced with silver threads. More subtle shimmer in reality!

Melissa, thank you for the challenge - what a gorgeous photo! I felt good all day after looking at it :0)

Thanks to everyone who took time to stop by - have an awesome day!!!

January Papertrey Bloghop!

Welcome to the January Bloghop! This month we're meant to create a TOTAL PACKAGE - outside, inside and envies.........so here goes....... :0)

Don't you find the Papertrey DT blogs super-inspiring??? I would never have thought to combine Pure Poppy and Berry Sorbet - but Dawn McVey did - so I tried ...... and I LOVE IT!!

Then I added a bit of love to the inside of the card - keeping the vintage text paper, stiching, leaves and flowers for continuity. I did not add a sentiment inside the card - I so much prefer to write my own thoughts :0) but I did add a piece of white cardstock to write on......

On the back of the card, I added a watermark - with the flower image and a 'made for you' sentiment.....

I then took some inspiration from Nichole Heady - and used a glassine bag for my envelope - and used a dash of inspiration from Betsy Veldman - sewing the sides to customise it to my card size.......

I used a Spellbinders tag die to create the label, an EK Success punch for the flower and stamped another leaf image over the name to keep the theme going......

Next a little inspiration from Michelle Wooderson - a Doo-Dad for the envie closure :0)

Materials: - Papertrey Ink except Vintage paper, Spellbinders Tag Die, EK Success Punch, Versamark Ink

So there it is :0)

I have tried to keep this relatively brief because I know that you have PLACES TO GO and THINGS TO DO!!! Enjoy the Hop and all of the lovely inspiration out there!

Thanks for taking the time to stop by!

P.S. - Love the Anniversary stamps Beth - Thank you!!

With Sympathy....

I met someone in town who couldn't find a sympathy card for a friend who was going through more than one person's share of trials and heartaches...and offered to try and make her one instead.

I used an image from Waltzing Mouse. The tree in this set is so beautiful and I find the sentiments so meaningful.

I wanted to keep the design really simple and just added a little extra twine and some stitching for texture.

Materials: Tree Stamp - Waltzing Mouse; Cardstock, Ribbon, Twine, Sentiment - Papertrey; Punch - Fiskars; Rhinestones - Kaiser

The lady who needed the card is really happy with the result - and I'm really thrilled I was able to help her!

Thanks for stopping by! (Extra hugs if you're a Peep!!)

:0)

Mouse in the House!......

This is such an exciting post for me - I have officially ventured into the world of "WaltzingMouse" such fun - and such gorgeous stamps! I really like how they compliment my new Papertrey Stash too :0)

I'm still making Baby Cards (almost done) so apologies to anyone who feels like they've had a LOT of baby cards already this month, heeee!

Materials: Cardstock, Ribbon, Button Twine - Papertrey;  Stamps - WaltzingMouse; Sentiment Stamp - Papertrey; Dies - Spellbinders; Punch - Martha Stewart; Pearls - Kaiser; Stickles Glitter Glue

Materials: Stamps - Papertrey; Tag Stamp - WaltzingMouse; Cardstock, Button, Twine - Papertrey, Ribbon - May Arts; Rhinestone - Kaiser; Die - Spellbinders

Materials: Cardstock, Ink, Sentiment - Papertrey;  Labels and Baby Sock Stamp - Waltzingmouse;  Ribbon - Offray;  Dies - Spellbinders, Rhinestones - Kaiser; Scor-Bug Tool

I have only one more card to go before I'm up to the number I wanted to make!

Thank you so much for stopping by and sitting a while :0)

Have a completely wonderful rest of the day!

Guidelines II

Happy Monday everyone! I just can't believe how amazing the latest sneak peeks have been over on Nichole Heady and the PTI Design Team's blogs! The forum is buzzing with excitement...not least is 'what is the new colour this month'  ?! :0) Part of me thinks it would be fun being on the DT looking on, the other part of me loves being on the receiving end of all of the suspense and excitement!

Here is an 'oldie' that I think is a huge amount of fun. These Guidelines are never boring - and seem to be able to adapt to pretty much any mood or occasion! This pattern has a little twist to it - courtesy of 'Beautiful Blooms' .....

Materials: Cardstock, Stamps, Ink, button, twine  - Papertrey Ink; Punch - Fiskars; Flower - Prima; Gel Pen - Inkssentials; Pearls - Kaiser

Thank you for stopping by - and if you're part of the PTI countdown - I hope you enjoy every last minute of it - so far it has been awesome :0)!!

Baby Cards...Baby Cards....Baby Cards....

These are for someone who did me a *HYOOOOGE* favour! I hope that they are what she needs :0) So far there are 15 of them, but this is just a sampler.....

Sorry for the bad lighting - it's completely dark outside :0(

This card didn't photograph well, but it's *very* girly - here is just a detail of it......

Another difficult card to photograph - it has scored lines, punched hearts and a bit of sparkle - it's very clean and sweet looking IRL!

And this is my favourite of them all! :0)

Just one more!!

Thanks for stopping in!

Have a WONDERFUL day! :0)

 

 

Moxie Fab Trigger Tuesday

While playing the in the Papertrey Srap-tastic challenge (see previous post) I found, visiting some blogs, that people were playing in the Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger challenge too. I visited the site and discovered that this picture was the inspiration piece.

Gracious, my first reaction was "I'm ready to move in!" Isn't it beautiful? (If you want to know more about it - go to Coastal Living).

I really wanted to take part in the challenge - this card is just a variation on what I was doing for the Scrap-tastic challenge, but the picture looks so light, airy and summery - I think there are butterflies flitting outside those dreamy white curtains :0)

Here is a little picture of the butterfly detail - where the really pretty colour mix is....these colours are so happy and gentle.....

Materials: Cardstock, Stamps, Ink, Button, Twine - Papertrey Ink, Die - SU!; Embossing folder - Cuttlebug

Thanks to Kazan Clark for discovering the glorious inspiration piece - and for the chance to play along! :0)

Papertrey Scraps

Nichole Heady challenged Papertrey's Senior Design Team to get creative with their scraps - and then extended the challenge to everyone else too :0)!

Here is my favourite way to use up scraps at the moment - little bits of patterned paper, for backgrounds and scraps of plain paper used as die cuts. If you are a fan of Dawn McVey you may recognise this card layout from her post here - I haven't changed it very much. (Check out the totally cute antennae for the butterfly too - that's also Dawn's genius!) Presently I'm making a little stash of these as a "go to" bundle - the sentiment can be used for just about everything - and they are sure to brighten up anyone's day!

And one in blues....

I have an absolute passion for Green Tea Leaves paper at the moment (YUM!)

Materials: Cardstock, Stamps, Ink, Patterned Paper, Button and Twine - Papertrey Ink, Butterfly Die - SU!, Border Punch - Fiskars; Distress ink and Blending Tool - Ranger; Embossing Folder - ProvoCraft

Thanks for the challenge Nichole, and for the inspiration, Dawn!

To anyone who pops in - as the cards say "Hope Your Day is FABULOUS"!! :0)